WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:21.440 Thank you very much, and it's a pleasure to be here in beautiful Seattle. 00:21.440 --> 00:25.320 I'm going to start tonight, I realize there may be a number of people in the audience 00:25.320 --> 00:32.560 who are familiar with Haiti and know it, but we have a very short presentation which we'll 00:32.560 --> 00:38.720 give just to give anybody who doesn't have that background to fill in some of the gaps. 00:38.720 --> 00:42.000 Haiti as you can see is in the center of the Caribbean. 00:42.000 --> 00:47.240 It was the first large island that Columbus landed on in 1492. 00:47.240 --> 00:54.320 In fact, he crash landed on it because his flagship, the Santa Maria, sank off the Northwest 00:54.320 --> 00:55.320 Coast. 00:55.320 --> 00:59.720 They took the wreckage and they built the Navidad Fort where he left his away team when 00:59.720 --> 01:04.520 he went back to Isabella and Ferdinand for whom he named the island Hispaniola, Little 01:04.520 --> 01:07.680 Spain because he found it so beautiful. 01:07.680 --> 01:09.160 Nobody's ever found the Navidad. 01:09.160 --> 01:17.960 It's been looked for decades, never to be found. 01:17.960 --> 01:28.160 The island became the richest colony in the Western hemisphere, dwarfing the output of 01:28.160 --> 01:34.760 the other colonies and the English colonies of the North American continent. 01:34.760 --> 01:43.040 It was really one of the corners of the triangle trade where essentially slaves were picked 01:43.040 --> 01:52.840 up in Africa, traded in Haiti for sugar and that was taken to France where they would 01:52.840 --> 01:56.640 pick up guns and then they would head back down to Africa, pick up more slaves. 01:56.640 --> 02:06.800 That was the triangle trade which made Haiti really the engine that built the French bourgeoisie. 02:06.800 --> 02:16.240 The country became independent in 1804 and as many of you heard, it had a devastating 02:16.240 --> 02:22.520 earthquake in 2010, January 12th. 02:22.520 --> 02:31.000 Along the bottom of the mouth of Haiti there from Port-au-Prince to Laoganne, the towns 02:31.000 --> 02:45.480 were essentially leveled, some 319,000 people were said to be dead from that by the official 02:45.480 --> 02:50.160 Haitian government to have been killed in that earthquake according to official government 02:50.160 --> 02:52.160 figures. 02:52.160 --> 03:01.280 The statistician recently reviewed the matter and came up with a figure of closer to 40 03:01.280 --> 03:05.400 to 60,000, but nonetheless it was a terrible blow to the country. 03:05.400 --> 03:11.440 Many thousands of buildings fell down including the National Palace, most of the churches, 03:11.440 --> 03:16.880 many public schools, burying people. 03:16.880 --> 03:25.520 The city was, Port-au-Prince, the capital was essentially destroyed. 03:25.520 --> 03:31.920 In many areas like in this slide you see houses were built one on top of another and one of 03:31.920 --> 03:38.480 the problems became that houses would topple onto each other and afterwards rebuilding 03:38.480 --> 03:40.760 is very difficult because there are no roads in there. 03:40.760 --> 03:46.080 It's down these little paths, what they call corridors. 03:46.080 --> 03:49.560 It's very difficult to rebuild in that area. 03:49.560 --> 03:56.640 Many of the people who were displaced by the collapsed housing moved to camps. 03:56.640 --> 04:01.600 It was about 1.5 million shortly after the quake. 04:01.600 --> 04:09.800 It is down now to about 500,000 people living in these tent and tarp camps some two years 04:09.800 --> 04:11.360 later. 04:11.360 --> 04:20.160 These are sprinkled around the metropolitan area and are largely now disintegrating under 04:20.160 --> 04:23.520 two years of sun and rain. 04:23.520 --> 04:25.680 When the sun beats on them they're like little ovens. 04:25.680 --> 04:29.800 You can just imagine them baking in one of those tents. 04:29.800 --> 04:36.200 When it rains as it often does at night, they just leak and are of no use at all in stopping 04:36.200 --> 04:38.400 the rain. 04:38.400 --> 04:45.240 Here's one of the largest camps in Port-au-Prince in the Jean-Marie Vincent camp down in central 04:45.240 --> 04:48.160 Port-au-Prince near the old military airport. 04:48.160 --> 04:51.880 A lot of them as you can see have developed into little towns. 04:51.880 --> 04:58.960 They have lottery offices like that little booth you see off to the right, little stores 04:58.960 --> 05:02.440 and beauty salons, barber shops, etc. 05:02.440 --> 05:04.760 Here are the figures on it. 05:04.760 --> 05:12.040 As you can see as of September there were about 800 camps but those are now being reduced. 05:12.040 --> 05:19.440 There is a campaign by the new government of Michel Martelly, the new president, to 05:19.440 --> 05:20.440 buy people out. 05:20.440 --> 05:23.640 He gives them 20,000 or 21,000 gourds. 05:23.640 --> 05:30.120 That comes to about 500 or 525 dollars to move out. 05:30.120 --> 05:36.440 Sometimes police come in or sometimes just deputized goons and force people out. 05:36.440 --> 05:40.920 Many of them are really being laid siege to. 05:40.920 --> 05:47.240 Their supplies which were being brought in by NGOs have been cut off. 05:47.240 --> 05:53.920 Water toilets have been cut down to 7%, 38% respectively. 05:53.920 --> 05:57.900 As you can see as of September that's down even lower now. 05:57.900 --> 06:04.000 People are having to leave in great numbers from those camps. 06:04.000 --> 06:10.760 Where many of them end up are on these settlements of shelters, I won't call them houses, built 06:10.760 --> 06:12.200 outside of the city. 06:12.200 --> 06:17.780 This is a camp called the most famous one known as Corais-Sesales which is essentially 06:17.780 --> 06:22.640 built in the desert out north of the capital. 06:22.640 --> 06:33.640 That is between two dumping grounds from the coups of the Tintayin and Montcabrit. 06:33.640 --> 06:35.040 Very desolate area. 06:35.040 --> 06:38.360 It's essentially a flood plain. 06:38.360 --> 06:46.400 The white rocks that are at the soil make the area very hot and bright during the day. 06:46.400 --> 06:50.480 When it rains the waters flood through there. 06:50.480 --> 06:54.440 You can see it in the upper right-hand corner there. 06:54.440 --> 06:55.520 That's about where it is. 06:55.520 --> 06:59.960 It requires two or sometimes three fairs to get into Port-au-Prince. 06:59.960 --> 07:01.320 Takes hours. 07:01.320 --> 07:04.360 It's not a place where anybody can find work. 07:04.360 --> 07:10.760 They're trying to take Korean investors and build an assembly factory out there to give 07:10.760 --> 07:12.640 the people work. 07:12.640 --> 07:14.880 We'll talk more about that later. 07:14.880 --> 07:20.840 That's the cheap labor solution that they're proposing for Haiti which is no solution at 07:20.840 --> 07:23.120 all. 07:23.120 --> 07:27.200 Outside of the camps you see these large informal communities developing. 07:27.200 --> 07:33.720 People who had originally come to take advantage of the services provided to the camps by the 07:33.720 --> 07:36.400 NGOs. 07:36.400 --> 07:37.400 Water toilets. 07:37.400 --> 07:40.840 Now, of course, those have been cut off. 07:40.840 --> 07:45.880 These camps are left with nothing but they remain out in the fields and people really 07:45.880 --> 07:48.640 have nowhere to go back. 07:48.640 --> 07:52.040 This picture, by the way, looks exceptionally green. 07:52.040 --> 07:54.640 It was shortly after some rains. 07:54.640 --> 07:59.800 Generally the hills of that area are much browner. 07:59.800 --> 08:06.120 The housing that remains, if you drive around Port-au-Prince you'll see it will have red, 08:06.120 --> 08:09.520 yellow, or green markings on them. 08:09.520 --> 08:16.920 As you can see by this study that was done, the bar study, only half of Haiti's houses 08:16.920 --> 08:25.680 are really safe with the other half being basically ready to, should be demolished or 08:25.680 --> 08:27.000 should be repaired. 08:27.000 --> 08:29.720 Nonetheless, people are moving back into them. 08:29.720 --> 08:38.140 In early 2011, 64% of them had families moving back in and 85% of the yellow-coated which 08:38.140 --> 08:41.440 Kit Miyamoto said was an extremely dangerous situation. 08:41.440 --> 08:49.340 Indeed, it is because hurricanes or earthquakes could cause disaster in that case. 08:49.340 --> 08:53.000 This is a picture of a cholera, a field cholera clinic. 08:53.000 --> 09:00.200 Cholera, Haiti is now the worst cholera epidemic in the world, the country which didn't know 09:00.200 --> 09:03.640 cholera two years ago. 09:03.640 --> 09:11.480 In October 2010, Nepalese troops with the UN mission to stabilize Haiti as the US occupation 09:11.480 --> 09:17.360 forces called, imported cholera into Haiti by allowing their sewage to leak into the 09:17.360 --> 09:22.760 headwaters of the Artibonite River, Haiti's largest river. 09:22.760 --> 09:25.360 From there it spread throughout the country. 09:25.360 --> 09:30.000 Over 7,000 people have now died from that epidemic. 09:30.000 --> 09:36.360 Over 500,000 people have been sickened and with the rainy season coming in April, the 09:36.360 --> 09:38.040 situation will get much worse. 09:38.040 --> 09:45.240 When the rains come, the waterborne disease of cholera spreads and it is still ravaging 09:45.240 --> 09:47.560 the country. 09:47.560 --> 09:57.680 It's interesting to note that cholera funding is about $130 million which is about eight 09:57.680 --> 10:04.960 times less than the $850 million spent each year on the UN military deployment of 10,000 10:04.960 --> 10:08.160 to 13,000 UN troops. 10:08.160 --> 10:14.440 Here's what the aid figures show, that about half of the $5 billion which was pledged in 10:14.440 --> 10:19.560 a March 2010 UN meeting has been disbursed. 10:19.560 --> 10:24.960 That doesn't mean it has reached people, it just means the agencies or governments have 10:24.960 --> 10:33.120 released it and nonetheless only about 10% of that actually gets to the people or to 10:33.120 --> 10:36.520 the government I should say. 10:36.520 --> 10:39.960 The other 90% is often bled off. 10:39.960 --> 10:47.520 Usually most of that recovery aid is in fact going to the State Department, the Pentagon, 10:47.520 --> 10:51.620 contractors or the NGOs themselves. 10:51.620 --> 10:59.000 This is the situation of aid in the country, one which is dysfunctional basically. 10:59.000 --> 11:01.520 Here is a picture of the embryonic Haitian Army. 11:01.520 --> 11:05.640 There are 10 of these informal camps around the country. 11:05.640 --> 11:11.840 These are former Haitian soldiers, former death squad members, former people who want 11:11.840 --> 11:15.060 to be soldiers being trained. 11:15.060 --> 11:22.460 This was one of the planks of President Michel Martelly's campaign. 11:22.460 --> 11:26.800 He is a neo-devaluist, has the soldiers as his base. 11:26.800 --> 11:33.320 He was the cheerleader of the 2004 and 1991 coups against former President Jean-Bertrand 11:33.320 --> 11:34.960 Aristide. 11:34.960 --> 11:41.460 The Army used to be called the Force Armée d'Aït or the Haitian Armed Forces, Armed 11:41.460 --> 11:44.520 Forces of Haiti, the FAD. 11:44.520 --> 11:53.040 It was disbanded by Aristide in 1995 because it carried out, primarily carried out coups 11:53.040 --> 11:59.520 against governments which were not following the dictates of either Washington or the ruling 11:59.520 --> 12:00.920 class in Haiti. 12:00.920 --> 12:06.600 Hence, he dissolved it. 12:06.600 --> 12:12.240 Their role in Haiti is being fulfilled now by UN peacekeepers as I mentioned before, 12:12.240 --> 12:13.240 about 10,000 to 13,000. 12:13.240 --> 12:15.080 They are at about 10,000 now. 12:15.080 --> 12:21.080 They popped them up to 13 shortly after the earthquake. 12:21.080 --> 12:24.600 In fact, they had sent 22,000 US troops. 12:24.600 --> 12:29.400 In addition, they were so worried the people were going to rise up. 12:29.400 --> 12:34.360 The UN troops have been deployed around Haiti. 12:34.360 --> 12:37.200 They've committed several massacres. 12:37.200 --> 12:48.080 The most notable being two, one in July 2005 and the other in December 2006 in which dozens 12:48.080 --> 12:49.840 of people were killed. 12:49.840 --> 12:51.700 Their bodies often disappeared. 12:51.700 --> 12:57.960 Many of the families didn't get the bodies of the young men killed back from those massacres. 12:57.960 --> 12:59.520 The Haitian people want them out. 12:59.520 --> 13:05.440 They want them out of the country, particularly since they've imported cholera into the country. 13:05.440 --> 13:18.600 Because of these massacres and also because there are regular events of sexual abuse. 13:18.600 --> 13:28.160 Earlier this summer, Ansel who is living here is from Seattle helped break a story about 13:28.160 --> 13:39.000 four Uruguayan UN soldiers who sodomized a young Haitian man, 18-year-old man in the 13:39.000 --> 13:41.160 southern town of Port-Salut. 13:41.160 --> 13:45.200 This was all captured on a phone and the video was given to ABC News. 13:45.200 --> 13:51.920 It went like wildfire around Haiti and around the world. 13:51.920 --> 14:01.000 Just last week, two more cases in Gonaïve and Port-au-Prince were identified of soldiers 14:01.000 --> 14:02.440 carrying out sexual abuse. 14:02.440 --> 14:04.800 We don't have the details then. 14:04.800 --> 14:10.560 Back in 2007, they had to ship home close to 200 Sri Lankan troops for abusing young 14:10.560 --> 14:15.980 girls as young as nine years old. 14:15.980 --> 14:20.280 In sharp contrast, we have the mission of the Cubans in Haiti. 14:20.280 --> 14:26.960 The Cubans for the past 13 years have deployed on average about 800 doctors around the country 14:26.960 --> 14:28.080 in the countryside. 14:28.080 --> 14:30.200 You see the different places there. 14:30.200 --> 14:42.240 The little red dots are the smaller ones out in the deep countryside. 14:42.240 --> 14:49.520 This is an effort that has won the enduring thanks of the Haitian people. 14:49.520 --> 14:58.240 They really view the Cuban doctors as gods who have brought free healthcare, tend to them 14:58.240 --> 15:07.540 in the deep countryside, often with very few implements or medicine. 15:07.540 --> 15:15.320 If you would like to keep a track of, keep abreast of events in Haiti and what's happening 15:15.320 --> 15:20.120 there, one of the most effective solidarity networks in fact is the Canadian Haiti Action 15:20.120 --> 15:26.920 Network which runs a website which keeps a lot of the English language and French language 15:26.920 --> 15:28.880 information on it. 15:28.880 --> 15:35.920 They in fact have sponsored my tour through Canada and now in Seattle. 15:35.920 --> 15:41.160 They carry all the WikiLeaks documents which we'll be talking about shortly on their website 15:41.160 --> 15:48.200 and have just a wealth of information that you can find there. 15:48.200 --> 15:56.400 CanadaHaitiAction.ca or you can Google Chan, Canada Haiti Action Network. 15:56.400 --> 16:02.400 If you want some books to read on Haiti, there are a few that have just come out. 16:02.400 --> 16:07.040 There's Tectonic Shifts that was just mentioned. 16:07.040 --> 16:15.680 Also Laurent Dubois is a professor at Duke University in North Carolina. 16:15.680 --> 16:23.480 He's just published the Aftershocks of History which is a fantastic account which really 16:23.480 --> 16:27.880 speaks back to the popular myth that Haiti is a basket case. 16:27.880 --> 16:37.320 It can't help itself and it shows really how it has been a wellspring of innovation and 16:37.320 --> 16:46.800 intellect and great wealth as it was for the French colonial empire. 16:46.800 --> 16:52.760 Paul Farmer's book, Haiti After the Earthquake is also a very moving account. 16:52.760 --> 16:58.040 But one of the most important books if you really want to understand the 2004 coup d'etat 16:58.040 --> 17:01.720 is Damning the Flood by Peter Hallward. 17:01.720 --> 17:09.920 He's a professor of philosophy from Britain but has written one of the great historical 17:09.920 --> 17:12.600 accounts of Haiti. 17:12.600 --> 17:20.160 Presently what we're experiencing in Haiti is a restoration of the Devalier regime which 17:20.160 --> 17:27.200 was overthrown 25 years ago. 17:27.200 --> 17:35.160 Last year, former president for life, Jean-Claude Devalier returned. 17:35.160 --> 17:43.240 He said that he wanted to be of help to the country but the investigating judge, an investigating 17:43.240 --> 17:50.880 judge put him under house arrest and began to review a dossier to see what to do about 17:50.880 --> 17:57.040 close to a billion dollars that he stole from the Haitian treasury, the treasury of the 17:57.040 --> 18:00.120 poorest country in the western hemisphere. 18:00.120 --> 18:09.000 But above all, the thousands, even tens of thousands of people who were illegally imprisoned, 18:09.000 --> 18:20.120 executed, tortured and disappeared during his 15 year reign from 1971 to 1986. 18:20.120 --> 18:29.480 Just two days ago, the judge released the findings of his investigation and announced 18:29.480 --> 18:35.200 his indictment which he said would just be for the money stolen, which would carry a 18:35.200 --> 18:42.000 maximum sentence of five years and the crimes against humanity which have no statute of 18:42.000 --> 18:46.480 limitations on them, he cast aside as unnecessary. 18:46.480 --> 18:54.560 Well, needless to say, this has brought a tremendous backlash from human rights groups, 18:54.560 --> 19:00.600 from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch to many Haitian human rights groups, 19:00.600 --> 19:05.520 all of them crying foul, calling for appeal. 19:05.520 --> 19:13.360 But really this was possible because the government of Michel Martelly was in place and on several 19:13.360 --> 19:20.560 occasions, most recently at the big capitalist conclave in Davos, Switzerland, Martelly announced 19:20.560 --> 19:27.040 that he was contemplating a pardon of Devalier, not that you can pardon crime against humanity, 19:27.040 --> 19:32.560 of course, not possible, but he said he would and so he created some kind of pressure on 19:32.560 --> 19:39.000 the judge, some sort of notion that there needed to be reconciliation. 19:39.000 --> 19:44.560 The world responded with outrage. 19:44.560 --> 19:50.840 He backtracked the next few days, but nonetheless the damage was already done. 19:50.840 --> 19:59.640 The irony to this is that the judge put a house arrest order on Devalier, but almost 19:59.640 --> 20:08.000 every night, any night during the week you could see him in the best restaurants of Pétionville, 20:08.000 --> 20:14.760 the bourgeoisie's quarter above Port-au-Prince in the cool mountain heights, eating with 20:14.760 --> 20:20.400 a large security detail and many well-wishers. 20:20.400 --> 20:29.780 In contrast, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former slum parish priest who was elected really 20:29.780 --> 20:40.620 in response to Devalier's reign in 1990, returned to Haiti after seven years of exile and was 20:40.620 --> 20:45.680 received by some 10,000 Haitians who poured out spontaneously. 20:45.680 --> 20:56.160 They were basically demobilized by the government radios which said, oh no, Aristide's not coming 20:56.160 --> 20:57.160 back. 20:57.160 --> 21:02.520 But when he came back within about 10, 20 minutes, tens of thousands had massed outside 21:02.520 --> 21:08.360 the airport and this human wave carried him from the airport to his home in Tabar, about 21:08.360 --> 21:09.360 two miles away. 21:09.360 --> 21:13.480 It was an incredible outpouring and I've seen a lot of outpourings in Haiti and this was 21:13.480 --> 21:14.480 one of them. 21:14.480 --> 21:20.520 But the irony is that Aristide, who came back to this acclaim, has himself actually been 21:20.520 --> 21:22.320 under house arrest. 21:22.320 --> 21:28.200 While Devalier under house arrest circulates freely, Aristide cannot leave his home. 21:28.200 --> 21:34.400 He has not left his home since he returned in March of last year. 21:34.400 --> 21:38.360 So this is the reality of Haiti today. 21:38.360 --> 21:43.280 President Martelly is facing some crises of his own. 21:43.280 --> 21:50.040 He's been accused of very severe charges of corruption. 21:50.040 --> 21:53.600 For instance, to give you a taste of it, the dossier is very large. 21:53.600 --> 21:56.800 We can talk about it more if we'd like. 21:56.800 --> 22:07.440 He has quadrupled the per diem fee that a president gets when he travels abroad and 22:07.440 --> 22:10.640 President Martelly travels abroad a great deal. 22:10.640 --> 22:15.200 The Haitian president used to get $5,000 a day. 22:15.200 --> 22:18.320 Martelly put it at $20,000 a day. 22:18.320 --> 22:22.720 His wife, if she travels with him, gets $10,000 a day. 22:22.720 --> 22:29.320 If his children travel with him, as they often do, they get $7,500 a day. 22:29.320 --> 22:36.680 If some of his colleagues and friends, what he calls counselors, he gives them those titles, 22:36.680 --> 22:40.600 travel with him, they get $4,000 a day. 22:40.600 --> 22:48.360 And Martelly rarely travels without a huge retinue of people, not 15 or 20 as his customary, 22:48.360 --> 22:50.040 but 30. 22:50.040 --> 22:59.240 So these junkets that he's taken have been huge cash machines, giant ATMs on wheels which 22:59.240 --> 23:03.440 travel around the globe to Davos, Ireland, et cetera. 23:03.440 --> 23:05.680 That's where he just came back from. 23:05.680 --> 23:13.040 So we have this on the one hand, but to top it all off, the cherry on top, if you will, 23:13.040 --> 23:22.200 is that it appears he is a US citizen, which is in stark violation of the Haitian constitution, 23:22.200 --> 23:28.240 which says you have to be a Haitian citizen who has never renounced your nationality. 23:28.240 --> 23:36.760 Well, about seven months ago, we found one of his family members who was willing to talk 23:36.760 --> 23:42.960 to us at Haiti Liberté, and they told us that he'd had a passport, that he'd been a US citizen 23:42.960 --> 23:47.280 since 1993 or 1995. 23:47.280 --> 23:52.760 We didn't run with the story because we could never confirm it. 23:52.760 --> 23:54.240 We called the State Department. 23:54.240 --> 23:58.360 I could say we could never explicitly confirm it. 23:58.360 --> 23:59.460 We called the State Department. 23:59.460 --> 24:00.460 We asked them. 24:00.460 --> 24:01.600 We said, is he a citizen? 24:01.600 --> 24:05.600 They hemmed and hawed quite a bit saying, there's privacy laws. 24:05.600 --> 24:06.840 We can't tell you that. 24:06.840 --> 24:09.000 But finally, they gave us an answer. 24:09.000 --> 24:14.480 And textually, word for word, their answer was, to the best of our knowledge, we have 24:14.480 --> 24:19.760 no reason to believe that President Martelly is now or has ever been a US citizen. 24:19.760 --> 24:26.440 Well, we took that as a yes because it's a simple yes or no question. 24:26.440 --> 24:27.560 Look at your computer. 24:27.560 --> 24:28.560 Look at the papers. 24:28.560 --> 24:30.480 Does he have a passport or not? 24:30.480 --> 24:34.800 It's not to the best of your knowledge or you have no reason to believe. 24:34.800 --> 24:38.880 So we took it as a yes, but we still didn't run with it. 24:38.880 --> 24:47.120 But recently, a Haitian senator has begun to delve to the bottom of it using a Haitian 24:47.120 --> 24:48.540 investigative method. 24:48.540 --> 24:55.400 She turned up Martelly's or one of Martelly's former mistresses in the Dominican Republic. 24:55.400 --> 25:03.400 Remember, he was a compas singer in his previous incarnation who had many mistresses around 25:03.400 --> 25:06.240 the globe. 25:06.240 --> 25:08.040 And she was mad. 25:08.040 --> 25:14.200 And she had a canceled passport, a canceled US passport of his, which she provided to 25:14.200 --> 25:16.400 Senator Moise Jean-Charles. 25:16.400 --> 25:18.680 At least this is what he said. 25:18.680 --> 25:23.400 We cannot state definitively that this is the case because we have not seen at Haiti 25:23.400 --> 25:26.040 Liberté the actual passport. 25:26.040 --> 25:34.680 He has given the passport to a Senate commission investigating Martelly's citizenship and that 25:34.680 --> 25:41.600 of 39, 38 other government officials. 25:41.600 --> 25:49.440 And if this proves true, I should say that this commission was headed by Senator Moise 25:49.440 --> 25:59.400 Jean-Charles, who has been a very aggressive and dogged researcher in this matter. 25:59.400 --> 26:02.840 But they carried out a coup in the commission. 26:02.840 --> 26:09.040 So two of Martelly's parliamentary allies are now in charge of the commission. 26:09.040 --> 26:17.840 And they've said that this document, this copy of the passport, of the canceled US passport 26:17.840 --> 26:20.480 cannot be given to the press. 26:20.480 --> 26:25.960 We are nonetheless trying to find the mistress in Dominican Republic and get a copy for ourselves. 26:25.960 --> 26:30.880 So stay tuned to the Haiti Liberté website for that. 26:30.880 --> 26:36.560 But this will cause a tremendous crisis in the government if it's determined that Martelly 26:36.560 --> 26:43.320 is a US citizen because he will be called upon to resign. 26:43.320 --> 26:49.760 However, this could end up being a huge confrontation. 26:49.760 --> 26:57.840 Martelly in a 1997 article with a Miami paper when he was already contemplating his presidency 26:57.840 --> 27:01.840 said the first thing I'll do as president is dissolve the parliament because you can't 27:01.840 --> 27:04.840 get anything done with the parliament. 27:04.840 --> 27:10.120 So it's very likely if the parliament comes and says, President Martelly, you have to 27:10.120 --> 27:15.620 step down, that he will say, no, you have to step down parliament. 27:15.620 --> 27:19.040 So we're waiting to see if this will happen. 27:19.040 --> 27:22.600 It's just speculation at this point. 27:22.600 --> 27:27.440 But the ingredients are starting to come together. 27:27.440 --> 27:34.400 In this week's Haiti Liberté, we look at the review process that is beginning and they're 27:34.400 --> 27:44.640 starting to find that indeed many of the members of the 39 flagged by Senator Moise are indeed 27:44.640 --> 27:51.800 US or foreign nationals or have dual nationality. 27:51.800 --> 27:56.880 So this is the crisis that is brewing. 27:56.880 --> 28:06.680 Haiti Liberté found an easier way to get a clear answer out of the State Department 28:06.680 --> 28:12.960 this past summer and that was through WikiLeaks cables, which were provided to the newspaper 28:12.960 --> 28:15.640 by WikiLeaks. 28:15.640 --> 28:17.080 It was a great honor. 28:17.080 --> 28:26.720 As many of you may know, the 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables that they came into possession 28:26.720 --> 28:35.840 of were originally given to four mainstream media, the New York Times, the Guardian in 28:35.840 --> 28:41.980 England, Der Spiegel in Germany, and Le Monde in France. 28:41.980 --> 28:46.640 But those big media did practically nothing with the documents. 28:46.640 --> 28:54.000 In fact, the New York Times boasted that they received clearance from the State Department 28:54.000 --> 28:57.960 before they published any of their articles on the WikiLeaks documents. 28:57.960 --> 29:04.080 That gives you some idea of the servility and timidity with which they approached them. 29:04.080 --> 29:07.920 So WikiLeaks decided to adopt a new strategy. 29:07.920 --> 29:13.240 They said, we're going to go to the press in the countries concerned by them and give 29:13.240 --> 29:15.700 them the documents. 29:15.700 --> 29:23.880 So we're very proud that they chose Haiti Liberté as the media to release the documents 29:23.880 --> 29:31.240 and to edit them because we had to go through the documents and remove names, block out 29:31.240 --> 29:37.000 the names of people who might have their lives or livelihoods threatened by the revelations 29:37.000 --> 29:40.800 made therein. 29:40.800 --> 29:49.160 It was a very cloak and dagger operation receiving the documents. 29:49.160 --> 29:52.720 Remember, WikiLeaks began as a hacker organization. 29:52.720 --> 29:58.560 They knew a great deal about Internet security and they said, no, we cannot email you the 29:58.560 --> 29:59.920 documents. 29:59.920 --> 30:04.940 We have to deliver them to you in hand and not just deliver them. 30:04.940 --> 30:14.720 When they came, it was a team of three, and they gave us training in how to receive the 30:14.720 --> 30:19.040 documents, how to put them on a computer that wasn't connected to the Internet so we couldn't 30:19.040 --> 30:28.080 be hacked in by Pentagon or State Department hackers, to all sorts of password protocols. 30:28.080 --> 30:34.640 In fact, we were finally put on a secure video link with Julian Assange who explained to 30:34.640 --> 30:41.080 us how to take a small thumb drive they'd given us and put it in with a passkey and 30:41.080 --> 30:44.400 decrypt the documents, which finally we did. 30:44.400 --> 30:54.200 What we got were 1,918 documents which were marked Haiti by the State Department. 30:54.200 --> 30:57.840 This doesn't mean they came from the Haitian embassy. 30:57.840 --> 31:05.360 In fact, it means that any communication throughout the US diplomatic service, it might be from 31:05.360 --> 31:13.480 Ottawa to Washington or the Vatican to Washington or Paris to Haiti, all of these that involved 31:13.480 --> 31:17.720 Haiti would be marked H.A. and we got them. 31:17.720 --> 31:24.720 When we heard that the documents before we'd received them spanned from March 2003 to February 31:24.720 --> 31:35.080 2010, we were overjoyed because finally we knew we'd get a glimpse into the intrigues 31:35.080 --> 31:42.240 that happened at the embassy in the February 29, 2004 overthrow and kidnapping of President 31:42.240 --> 31:44.320 Aristide. 31:44.320 --> 31:50.840 Much to our dismay and disappointment when we got the documents, we found that the period 31:50.840 --> 32:01.020 from 2003 up through March 2005 from the US embassy in Port-au-Prince was not there. 32:01.020 --> 32:06.880 We asked Julian Assange, we said, what happened? 32:06.880 --> 32:08.440 Where are our cables that we're looking for? 32:08.440 --> 32:13.080 He said that most likely they were a higher security level. 32:13.080 --> 32:20.440 The classification for our documents were from a confidential more or less through several 32:20.440 --> 32:22.600 degrees up until secret. 32:22.600 --> 32:28.080 But it's believed that the other documents may have been top secret or ultra top secret. 32:28.080 --> 32:34.000 Of course, these cables are one of the lowest levels of secrecy. 32:34.000 --> 32:43.200 Those documents were finally combed through by our team. 32:43.200 --> 32:47.960 We found a number of stories which were of great interest nonetheless. 32:47.960 --> 32:54.700 What they essentially showed was how the US embassy has over these years been working 32:54.700 --> 33:02.240 as the handmaiden and ringleader of US corporate interests in Haiti. 33:02.240 --> 33:09.200 The one we started off with was the story of Petra Caribe where Venezuela came to Haiti 33:09.200 --> 33:12.280 and said, we'll provide all your energy needs. 33:12.280 --> 33:22.560 14,000 barrels of oil a day, you pay 60% upfront, 40% you pay over 25 years at 1% interest. 33:22.560 --> 33:25.640 Saves the country $100 million a year. 33:25.640 --> 33:33.980 Even the US embassy had to admit in the cables that this was tremendous boon to the country. 33:33.980 --> 33:44.400 But they nonetheless worked with Texaco Chevron, Exxon Mobil to torpedo the Petra Caribe deal. 33:44.400 --> 33:51.760 It took them two years on the very day that President Rene Perval was inaugurated in 2006. 33:51.760 --> 33:58.080 He went straight from the podium where he delivered the inaugural speech to a room in 33:58.080 --> 33:59.240 the palace. 33:59.240 --> 34:05.200 The press was invited and there he signed with Vice President Rangel of Venezuela the 34:05.200 --> 34:06.200 Petra Caribe deal. 34:06.200 --> 34:15.160 It wasn't for two years that that oil could begin flowing and that was due solely to US 34:15.160 --> 34:17.320 embassy sabotage. 34:17.320 --> 34:29.520 They also sabotaged efforts of Haitian parliamentarians to raise the minimum wage to $5 a day. 34:29.520 --> 34:38.700 Assembly workers were being paid $1 in change a day to assemble electronics and clothing 34:38.700 --> 34:47.960 for labels like Haynes, Fruit of the Loom, Gap, Levi Strauss. 34:47.960 --> 34:55.000 This effort by the parliamentarians to raise the minimum wage to $5 a day still would have 34:55.000 --> 34:59.880 been the lowest minimum wage in the Western hemisphere. 34:59.880 --> 35:02.120 They fought it and they won this time. 35:02.120 --> 35:08.600 They won at least temporarily and got President Perval to intervene and put it down to $3 35:08.600 --> 35:09.600 a day. 35:09.600 --> 35:15.440 It's all outlined in the WikiLeaks pieces we did. 35:15.440 --> 35:21.200 The other areas, and you can check them, they're on the Chan website that I showed you, very 35:21.200 --> 35:22.200 well laid out. 35:22.200 --> 35:27.600 We have them also on the Haiti Liberté site, but the Chan website does actually a better 35:27.600 --> 35:29.440 job of laying them out. 35:29.440 --> 35:36.280 We looked at how they tried to block Aristide's return in conjunction with Canada and France, 35:36.280 --> 35:40.360 the Vatican, to keep him from returning. 35:40.360 --> 35:44.040 For seven years he was in exile in South Africa. 35:44.040 --> 35:50.960 We looked at how they helped integrate paramilitaries into the police force, the police force which 35:50.960 --> 35:53.920 was supposed to keep the peace. 35:53.920 --> 36:00.920 They put people who had been coup makers, paramilitary coup makers, into the police force. 36:00.920 --> 36:06.760 We looked at the earthquake aid, how they deployed without any Haitian government clearance, 36:06.760 --> 36:14.800 22,000 troops, and then went and badgered any journalists around the world who criticized 36:14.800 --> 36:22.520 their efforts. 36:22.520 --> 36:29.480 This is the nature of the problems in Haiti today. 36:29.480 --> 36:39.840 Haiti was in many ways a vanguard nation throughout these past two centuries in the Americas. 36:39.840 --> 36:45.960 As all of you probably know, it was the first and last successful slave revolution. 36:45.960 --> 36:53.600 Cuba, next door, their great revolutionary leader was Jose Marti. 36:53.600 --> 36:57.560 His birthday was celebrated just at the end of January. 36:57.560 --> 37:05.520 One of his closest allies in the Caribbean was a Haitian president called Antonor Fermin. 37:05.520 --> 37:16.560 Fermin was a leading intellectual of his day and of his time who inspired legions of pan-Caribbeanists 37:16.560 --> 37:23.120 and anti-imperialists in the following years in fighting the hegemon, the growing hegemon 37:23.120 --> 37:26.760 to the north. 37:26.760 --> 37:31.560 Antonor Fermin became close friends with Jose Marti. 37:31.560 --> 37:41.080 In fact, Marti, he left on his final voyage to Cuba in 1895 from the port of Cape Haitian. 37:41.080 --> 37:49.840 One month later in May, he was killed in battle fighting for a free Cuba. 37:49.840 --> 37:53.000 This has been the role of Haiti throughout history. 37:53.000 --> 37:59.760 It was the first nation to foil US election engineering in 1990 with the election of President 37:59.760 --> 38:01.040 Aristide. 38:01.040 --> 38:06.800 Up until then, the US basically had been able to successfully apply their formula where 38:06.800 --> 38:13.800 they would back a candidate through their National Endowment for Democracy with millions 38:13.800 --> 38:15.360 of dollars. 38:15.360 --> 38:19.480 Just like here, the candidate who spends the most wins, but it didn't work in Haiti. 38:19.480 --> 38:28.480 It foundered, and a priest who was outspent 64 to 1 by the US candidate won the election 38:28.480 --> 38:30.880 in a landslide. 38:30.880 --> 38:31.880 It changed history. 38:31.880 --> 38:38.000 It was then that Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia and Correa in Ecuador 38:38.000 --> 38:42.920 and even Lula in Brazil began to look and say, wow, we can do that. 38:42.920 --> 38:50.360 This is the vast front and just take those elections, make it possible. 38:50.360 --> 38:56.880 Haiti has been this leader and we owe it that respect. 38:56.880 --> 39:07.040 We should always remember the words of Antonor Fermi on his deathbed when he said, a people 39:07.040 --> 39:14.520 can live only so long under tyranny and justice, illiteracy and misery, and then one day they'll 39:14.520 --> 39:15.520 rise up. 39:15.520 --> 39:22.360 Thank you. 39:22.360 --> 39:27.800 You seem to be fairly against Martelly, and I'm curious, who would you have backed in 39:27.800 --> 39:28.800 last year's election? 39:28.800 --> 39:36.200 Well, I think first and foremost, as Aristide said on his arrival, it was an exclusionary 39:36.200 --> 39:37.200 election. 39:37.200 --> 39:40.120 Haitians call it a selection, not an election. 39:40.120 --> 39:48.440 I think that the Provisional Electoral Council of Haiti should have been allowed to decide. 39:48.440 --> 39:54.520 Essentially the first round of the elections were a total mess, totally fraud-filled, violent, 39:54.520 --> 39:58.640 smart mess. 39:58.640 --> 40:03.880 The results of that, in fact, what happened was all the candidates got together in a big 40:03.880 --> 40:10.400 press conference the same day and said, none of us are going to participate in this. 40:10.400 --> 40:15.720 Then the head of the UN mission called Martelly and Myrlaan Marenga and said, you guys are 40:15.720 --> 40:16.720 ahead. 40:16.720 --> 40:17.720 You're going to win. 40:17.720 --> 40:18.720 Don't pull out. 40:18.720 --> 40:19.720 They flipped. 40:19.720 --> 40:22.960 They abandoned everybody else and they said, okay, we'll get on board if you're going 40:22.960 --> 40:26.680 to have us win. 40:26.680 --> 40:35.520 The results that the Electoral Council handed down had Myrlaan Marenga first and Jude Celestin, 40:35.520 --> 40:40.640 the candidate of the Inite Party of former president Rene Preval, come in second with 40:40.640 --> 40:42.760 Martelly close third. 40:42.760 --> 40:51.360 Well, at that point, the OAS and US intervened, meddled in the Haitian election and basically 40:51.360 --> 40:59.720 overruled the Electoral Council, which has by the constitution is the final arbiter of 40:59.720 --> 41:02.080 electoral matters. 41:02.080 --> 41:09.240 They said, no, you're going to put Martelly in number two, which happened, but not with 41:09.240 --> 41:11.960 the Electoral Council's grace. 41:11.960 --> 41:21.080 The Electoral Council had to vote, a majority vote to approve the first round results, which 41:21.080 --> 41:23.080 it never did. 41:23.080 --> 41:29.440 Essentially, that second round election that was held on March 20th, 2011 was illegal. 41:29.440 --> 41:37.200 The first thing I would say would be there should have been inclusionary elections, 41:37.200 --> 41:41.200 inclusive elections, including the Lavalas family. 41:41.200 --> 41:47.360 Second, the Electoral Council should have been able to exercise its sovereign right to conduct 41:47.360 --> 41:53.480 elections as it sees fit, and that would have been the result. 41:53.480 --> 42:02.820 But Martelly essentially was to our mind imposed by the US and OAS. 42:02.820 --> 42:10.400 This government is corrupt from what you've described and other things I've read, but 42:10.400 --> 42:20.480 on the other hand, it is the existing government and how could you see the money handled in 42:20.480 --> 42:24.520 a transparent, accountable, really productive way? 42:24.520 --> 42:28.520 Well, we totally agree with Paul Farmer. 42:28.520 --> 42:36.440 No matter what we think of the Martelly government, we think as a matter of principle, the Haitian 42:36.440 --> 42:41.720 government, whatever the Haitian government is, should be the one conducting and leading 42:41.720 --> 42:44.600 the aid effort, and all efforts in Haiti. 42:44.600 --> 42:50.400 Essentially, since the 1990s, if you read the USAID reports, they've been looking for 42:50.400 --> 42:58.040 ways to circumvent the state, the central government, to weaken it, to destroy it. 42:58.040 --> 43:01.520 We see the security of the country in the hands of foreigners. 43:01.520 --> 43:04.720 We see the aid to the country in the hands of foreigners. 43:04.720 --> 43:10.320 We see the administration of the country in the hands of foreigners. 43:10.320 --> 43:19.040 You have a weakened state, and as a matter of principle, we feel that this has to be 43:19.040 --> 43:20.800 the change. 43:20.800 --> 43:22.000 It has to be the state. 43:22.000 --> 43:29.480 That is the only thing that the Haitian people can vote in, put in, and have a say over. 43:29.480 --> 43:33.560 They can't do that with an NGO, or with a foreign government, or with the IMF, or with 43:33.560 --> 43:35.000 the World Bank. 43:35.000 --> 43:37.600 It's only with their own government. 43:37.600 --> 43:45.000 If the Haitian government is corrupt and doesn't do the right thing with the aid, that's then 43:45.000 --> 43:49.560 for the Haitians to figure out what to do about that government. 43:49.560 --> 44:00.600 To us, the essential problem in Haiti today is that these foreign forces are essentially 44:00.600 --> 44:04.040 taking over the country and denying it its self-determination. 44:04.040 --> 44:07.280 Thanks a lot, Kim. 44:07.280 --> 44:12.480 I really appreciate your time today. 44:12.480 --> 44:18.080 As you know, I was in Haiti during the earthquake with my family. 44:18.080 --> 44:25.360 When the earthquake hit, we started whatever medical relief we could provide at our hotel. 44:25.360 --> 44:34.040 It was incredible to read the WikiLeaks cable that says, the gold rush is on from the U.S. 44:34.040 --> 44:35.040 Embassy. 44:35.040 --> 44:40.040 That's what they're thinking about, how to make money off of the situation while there's 44:40.040 --> 44:44.040 one of the worst tragedies in history. 44:44.040 --> 44:52.160 One thing, while I was in Haiti, I wrote an article from the airport while I was there. 44:52.160 --> 44:59.440 I talked to a guy who's working with an evacuation service. 44:59.440 --> 45:04.800 He was getting evacuating people out to the DR on flights. 45:04.800 --> 45:11.480 He said that he was not able to run one of his flights because Hillary Clinton was coming 45:11.480 --> 45:12.720 in to give a speech. 45:12.720 --> 45:16.200 They grounded everything for three hours in the airport. 45:16.200 --> 45:20.700 That meant they didn't allow aid to come in to Haiti for those three hours. 45:20.700 --> 45:24.960 This is the fifth day after the earthquake when there's still people trapped and who 45:24.960 --> 45:28.880 could be saved if aid is flowing continuously. 45:28.880 --> 45:36.320 He said his flights were not able to get badly injured people evacuated. 45:36.320 --> 45:42.160 Then he said another flight was grounded so that she could get a suit flown in from the 45:42.160 --> 45:49.360 DR for a change of clothes for another media appearance she was making. 45:49.360 --> 45:53.840 We know that everything she was saying was rhetoric and that's how they work. 45:53.840 --> 45:59.600 One thing I read in your documents really struck home because when I wrote that article, 45:59.600 --> 46:07.400 I got an email very soon after from someone threatening a lawsuit that I insinuated things 46:07.400 --> 46:13.000 and spoke poorly of the secretary. 46:13.000 --> 46:15.780 I was worried about it but nothing came of it. 46:15.780 --> 46:19.920 I think it was in your reporting or I don't know if it was somewhere else but I think 46:19.920 --> 46:26.840 it was in your reporting that the U.S. embassy put out a cable saying please keep us informed 46:26.840 --> 46:34.160 of any articles about Haiti that speak negatively of the U.S. aid relief effort and deal with 46:34.160 --> 46:35.160 that problem. 46:35.160 --> 46:36.160 That's exactly right. 46:36.160 --> 46:40.480 That was Ansel's piece on the post earthquake response. 46:40.480 --> 46:41.720 Excellent. 46:41.720 --> 46:48.120 Thank you for revealing that because it made clear where this random threat came from, 46:48.120 --> 46:55.600 trying to silence voices that were pointing out the horrible job the U.S. did in the aid 46:55.600 --> 46:57.240 relief. 46:57.240 --> 47:02.280 When you talked about tens of thousands of people dying in this earthquake, well, thousands 47:02.280 --> 47:06.340 of them died directly in the earthquake but tens of thousands more died because they didn't 47:06.340 --> 47:10.520 get water or food in the first three or five days and they were trapped under. 47:10.520 --> 47:15.320 So I greatly appreciate that reporting and I just want to know what we people in this 47:15.320 --> 47:20.800 room that want to continue to challenge our government because as you said the foreign 47:20.800 --> 47:26.820 intervention is the main problem of this greatly wealthy area of the world that can take care 47:26.820 --> 47:27.840 of its own problems. 47:27.840 --> 47:36.920 What can we do to challenge our government to stay out of their affairs? 47:36.920 --> 47:41.080 As Roger said, there is the Canada Haiti Action Network. 47:41.080 --> 47:48.880 I think you, Jesse, are involved with mobilizations here in the Seattle area and there are people 47:48.880 --> 47:59.280 who are aware of this throughout the country about the U.S.'s heavy hand. 47:59.280 --> 48:01.800 We have to just keep our wits about us. 48:01.800 --> 48:10.360 If you listen to former President Clinton talk, you'll suspect that he's of the same 48:10.360 --> 48:12.400 opinion that we have. 48:12.400 --> 48:20.200 In fact, he is facilitating the program that was essentially the program of Jean-Claude 48:20.200 --> 48:27.320 Duvalier 30 years ago when I made the film Bitter Cane in Haiti under the Duvalier dictatorship. 48:27.320 --> 48:34.320 We looked at how the program of the government was essentially had two pillars, sweatshops 48:34.320 --> 48:35.600 and tourism. 48:35.600 --> 48:42.400 That is now the formula once again 30 years later, the same formula, sweatshops and tourism. 48:42.400 --> 48:48.920 Ironically, one of the reports which we published in Haiti Liberté which was produced by Haiti 48:48.920 --> 48:58.800 Grassroots Watch was on the Caracol Assembly Complex they're putting up in the north. 48:58.800 --> 49:03.180 This was built on the region's most fertile land. 49:03.180 --> 49:09.280 It's destroying a virgin mangrove forest, a coral reef. 49:09.280 --> 49:16.640 The UN groups that studied the project and were making recommendations about it said 49:16.640 --> 49:25.080 that area provided $1.3 billion of value to Haiti, however they quantify that. 49:25.080 --> 49:30.640 This is now being paved over to put in a factory where people would be paid five bucks a day. 49:30.640 --> 49:33.600 It's going to produce another Cite Soleil in the area. 49:33.600 --> 49:35.400 It's not the type of development. 49:35.400 --> 49:41.520 It's been shown over and over again that this sweatshop development does not bring development. 49:41.520 --> 49:46.720 Thanks a lot, this has been really very helpful. 49:46.720 --> 49:49.320 I just have a couple of questions. 49:49.320 --> 49:52.960 The La Valas movement, has that fractured? 49:52.960 --> 49:53.960 Is it still together? 49:53.960 --> 49:54.960 Is it still one party? 49:54.960 --> 49:59.560 Are there other parties that are progressive that are doing things in Haiti? 49:59.560 --> 50:03.600 The second one is do the Haitian workers have unions? 50:03.600 --> 50:06.240 If they do, how strong are they? 50:06.240 --> 50:08.760 What kind of role are they playing? 50:08.760 --> 50:15.400 The La Valas movement is beginning to get its, the La Valas party I should say, because there 50:15.400 --> 50:20.560 is a distinction between the La Valas movement, which is the broader democratic movement that 50:20.560 --> 50:28.280 began in 1986, and the La Valas, Femi La Valas party, which was the party formed in 1996 50:28.280 --> 50:32.940 with President Aristide as its leader. 50:32.940 --> 50:35.320 The party itself is reorganizing. 50:35.320 --> 50:43.360 It's now holding congresses in the departments of Haiti. 50:43.360 --> 50:44.360 Those are like states. 50:44.360 --> 50:50.920 There are 10 of them throughout the country in the buildup for a national congress, which 50:50.920 --> 50:53.440 I was told was supposed to be around March 20th. 50:53.440 --> 50:55.840 I don't think it's going to happen on March 20th. 50:55.840 --> 50:58.200 Maybe it will be in May or June or July. 50:58.200 --> 51:05.320 But sometime this year we expect to see a La Valas family party congress, and at that 51:05.320 --> 51:11.360 time they are supposed to announce a new leadership. 51:11.360 --> 51:14.960 Aristide will be stepping back. 51:14.960 --> 51:21.940 He is looking to become some kind of Nelson Mandela-like figure, I believe, from my discussions 51:21.940 --> 51:24.640 with him last April. 51:24.640 --> 51:26.080 That's what I sense. 51:26.080 --> 51:34.440 He is looking to pass the torch, if you will, to a new leadership. 51:34.440 --> 51:40.320 The party has not spoken out a great deal about Martelly, has not responded to many 51:40.320 --> 51:44.040 of his programs. 51:44.040 --> 51:50.280 It's been quite prudent, I would say too prudent in that respect, but they do expect to go 51:50.280 --> 51:57.400 into elections, and if they do, are likely to have the same sort of response, very favorable, 51:57.400 --> 51:59.320 that they've had in the past. 51:59.320 --> 52:07.760 As for unions, I should also say there are other initiatives happening at the base, at 52:07.760 --> 52:11.440 the grassroots levels, to start organizations which will be more engaged. 52:11.440 --> 52:17.260 A lot of that is happening in our office, at the Haiti Liberté office, which is combined 52:17.260 --> 52:20.560 with the Bureau of International Lawyers. 52:20.560 --> 52:30.440 A lot of groups meet there every day, every week, huge meetings discussing strategies. 52:30.440 --> 52:35.800 There's been a lot of talk of starting another party or initiative or front, but nobody wants 52:35.800 --> 52:42.400 to really get in front of the Lavalas family until it's clear which way they're going. 52:42.400 --> 52:50.400 As for unions, frankly, most of the unions in Haiti are either yellow unions or phantom 52:50.400 --> 52:51.400 unions. 52:51.400 --> 52:58.240 There is a union, Bataille-Ouvrière, which has done good work in some of the assembly 52:58.240 --> 53:00.800 factories. 53:00.800 --> 53:05.040 They've had a politically confused stance in some cases. 53:05.040 --> 53:13.200 They supported the coup of 2004, which has earned them a lot of scorn from portions of 53:13.200 --> 53:20.000 the progressive movement worldwide, but they have done some good organizing work. 53:20.000 --> 53:27.960 There are other unions like the CAATH, which has some internal problems. 53:27.960 --> 53:35.600 It basically has two heads, two factions, but it is also a union which functions on some levels. 53:35.600 --> 53:41.520 The union movement, we cannot say is strong, but the will is there. 53:41.520 --> 53:46.720 One of their problems is that it's very hard for Haitians to pay dues. 53:46.720 --> 53:52.400 Five dollars a day, how much are you going to pay in dues from that? 53:52.400 --> 53:59.600 You talked about the devastating effect that cholera is having on the general population. 53:59.600 --> 54:05.280 I think you mentioned that over 7,000 people have died, and there's over 500,000 that have 54:05.280 --> 54:06.280 been infected. 54:06.280 --> 54:11.800 I just would like to know what has happened to those people that have been infected. 54:11.800 --> 54:17.160 One more question is that I saw this documentation where they showed these big warehouses. 54:17.160 --> 54:23.160 They were stuffed with everything from baby pacifiers to big trucks for delivering goods 54:23.160 --> 54:25.240 and stuff. 54:25.240 --> 54:26.240 What has happened to that stuff? 54:26.240 --> 54:28.200 Is it still sitting in the warehouse? 54:28.200 --> 54:36.680 Is it there because people are greedy, incompetent, or they just don't care? 54:36.680 --> 54:41.760 For the first question, of the 500,000, one of the important things to know is that the 54:41.760 --> 54:51.400 Bureau for International Lawyers and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti have launched 54:51.400 --> 54:58.420 a lawsuit on behalf of 5,000 of the victims of cholera. 54:58.420 --> 55:03.140 Those are people who either had cholera or had family members die from cholera. 55:03.140 --> 55:08.940 They collected 5,000 of them, and they launched a lawsuit against the United Nations demanding 55:08.940 --> 55:15.520 reparations for Haiti from the United Nations for bringing cholera to Haiti. 55:15.520 --> 55:16.760 We'll see what happens. 55:16.760 --> 55:23.160 The UN has never officially recognized its responsibility in bringing, importing cholera 55:23.160 --> 55:28.400 into Haiti, and this lawsuit aims to rectify that. 55:28.400 --> 55:36.080 But cholera is a disease of poverty. 55:36.080 --> 55:46.000 Then you have slums which have open sewers running through them, the mud filled with 55:46.000 --> 55:50.440 cholera bacteria when there's a heavy rainstorm. 55:50.440 --> 55:52.640 It's very difficult to control this. 55:52.640 --> 55:59.560 It is an epidemic which is going to be plaguing Haiti for, I think, decades to come. 55:59.560 --> 56:04.560 It is a real human tragedy. 56:04.560 --> 56:10.920 As for the materials that you saw, I'm not sure what has happened, but I think the problem 56:10.920 --> 56:21.200 with aid has been that there are a lot of NGOs which are in a, I could call it a racket. 56:21.200 --> 56:27.200 They make money off of this charity. 56:27.200 --> 56:30.200 I think a lot of aid has been wasted in this way. 56:30.200 --> 56:31.200 It's even dumped. 56:31.200 --> 56:36.920 I've seen it even in Brooklyn, New York, where one of our offices is. 56:36.920 --> 56:40.720 We have an office in Port-au-Prince, but one in Brooklyn as well. 56:40.720 --> 56:48.160 I once saw a warehouse of a church which had done a collection for Haiti filled with things 56:48.160 --> 56:52.280 like you're saying, toys and discarded clothes. 56:52.280 --> 56:57.460 Eventually, they ended up dumping it because they never could get it shipped to Haiti. 56:57.460 --> 56:59.600 People had brought it. 56:59.600 --> 57:05.280 I think there's a huge problem with the aid going to Haiti. 57:05.280 --> 57:11.880 I think when people do give, you should do it judiciously to organizations which have 57:11.880 --> 57:36.880 a track record of effectiveness.